BEYOND THE OPERA HOUSE

About Us

Whenever you mention overseas that you are from Australia, people think “the opera house, skippy and the beaches” but Australia is not only that, Australia is the bush, the outback, the country people, and its wild life and lots more.
Ten years ago we joined one of the best four wheel drive club in the country. Being members of the Subaru Club, we have met exceptional people, whom we consider our second family; we learnt how to go camping, four wheel driving and more, now is time to put our skills to the test.
We will be travelling to the rainforest, the outback, the world famous great barrier reef, we will go through some remote areas with rugged terrain, we’ll see lots of wild life including the legendary salt water crocodile, furthermore the famous road trains, they are 53 metres long, of course meet the country people, we will be visiting cattle stations; one of them is one and a half million acres and obviously we will be going to a lot of country pubs so we can enjoy a coldie while we meet some of the locals and some adventurous travellers, we are very excited and cannot wait longer to “Go and See Australia”......well...part of it.

24 September 2010

After watching the sunrise at Uluru, we headed to Coober Pedy, South Australia. This place is well known as the Opal Capital of the World; we also wanted to experience what makes this place unique in the world so we decided to stay at an underground hotel for one night. The rooms are very quiet and the weather outside was cold, but inside was very cosy and comfortable.It is a very different place, it is surrounded by a lot of piles of sandstone dirt excavated from the mines; there is no other place like this one.....maybe there is: “Mars”. The miners quickly discovered the advantages of living underground to escape the heat from the summer and winters cool desert nights. No matter how harsh the climate, the underground rooms maintain a comfortable temperature from 23-25 degrees day and night throughout the year.It is estimated that about 50% of the population live underground; most dugout homes are excavated into hillsides rather than dug from shafts. We explored the town and visited churches, shops, hotels and bookshops, we even watched a documentary of the opals in an underground cinema; the experience was incredible and different.

We also went to the breakaways, it consists of colourful low hills, which have broken away from the Stuart Range, hence their name “the breakaways”; there are two lookouts which highlight the open spaces and colourful environment giving an impression of the long gone inland sea. This outcrop has been used in a number of films like “Mad Max” and “Ground Zero”.Along the hills there is the dingo (wild dogs) fence, this 2 metres high wire barrier stretches for over 5,300 kilometres across three states to protect the sheep country in south from the dingoes.

We were highly recommended to do the flight and see the outback from the air. It was amazing to see the Australian desert, where you could see “nothing”; all we could see on the ground was red with little green patches. Whilst on the flight we started to see more green patches and more green patches and suddenly the pilot pointed to us Lake Eyre, a 9600 sq km in size, which contains 400 million tonnes of salt and believe it or not it was a very big lake in the middle of the desert. We were told this lake was 80% full of its capacity and not seen like this in the last 34 years, most of this lake is 1 metre deep, with some 5 metre deep spots.The flight continued and we landed at William Creek, located on the Oodnadatta track and it is South Australia’s smallest village with a population of 3 permanent residents, its main attraction being a bush pub, after a coldie at the pub we took off and headed to Anna Creek Station, which is the world’s largest cattle station, then we spotted Painted Hills, these hills form part of Anna Creek with 25000 square kilometres, and 60000 cattle heads. The painted hills are set on an area measuring 20 kilometres by 18 kilometres; it reveals pedestal rocks and sandstone hills of vividly coloured ochre-yellow oxide, red and deep brown with contrasting crisp whites and jet blacks. They say it’s a moon-like landscape.

After looking at the tracks from the air, Gabriel could not resist to do one of the most popular tracks in Australia, the Oonadatta Track and visit “The Pink Road House” or at least as far as we could, because some sections of the track have been closed due to heavy rain for several days and some opened 2 days ago, so up we went, surprisingly the track was very smooth, some sections were flooded, however we found there were detours to avoid damaging the track. The scenery was spectacular lots of beautiful wild flowers, shrubs, birds, so green, in fact it looked a lot nicer than from the air. Suddenly we spotted a couple of camels on the road, when we approached them they were part of a wagon with a twist; one of the camels was pulling an unusual red vehicle attached by ropes, the other camel was just a companion. Then we had the opportunity to meet Klaus, he has a strong German accent even after migrating to Australia 40 years ago. He then introduced his two camels, named Willy and Snowy.Klaus’ wagon is a cut down red Suzuki Van with rubber tyres; he was not happy because the solar panels did not charge the battery he uses to run his fridge and computer, because the sky was overcast; the number plate says “shit happens”. Klaus has been travelling around Australia for the past 16 years, first by bicycle and since 2002 accompanied by Willy and Snowy.Klaus was very proud to talk about his new car, he said: “it is a lot better than the old Mitsubishi”, he prefers his car more than the push bike and enjoys travelling with his camels rather by himself.

After a quick stop at William Creek for lunch, we kept on driving and driving until we reached Anna Creek Station, we met some of the locals, had a soft drink and a nice chat regarding how they lived and worked in a very remote area, it was just amazing.

After saying good bye, we kept on driving until we reached Peake Station, this station is a little sister of Anna Creek Station, the only person we found told us everyone was working somewhere in the property and because they were so far away they were going to come back to the station by the end of the week. He told us they had enough food, water and their swags to last at least two weeks.

Following our visit to this station we went back to the track and some kilometres later we found the track closed therefore we turned around and headed back towards William Creek, arriving at around 7 pm, we decided to have dinner at the pub and kept on going back to Coober Pedy, unbelievably we drove 600 kilometres.

Next day we headed to Port Augusta, South Australia, after our arrival, we had to try the local hotel (pub), very nice meal and atmosphere.

This town was the end our journey, however we could not resist leaving this region without a quick scenic drive (470 kilometres) through the Flinders Ranges, a semi-arid region of mountain ranges, magnificent scenery and endless colour changes. It was worth it because the amount of flowers, wildlife and spectacular views.

Our trip to the Australian Outback was simply wonderful. We would like to thank all our followers for spending time reading and looking at the photos of our journey.

Australia is a beautiful country, it is very special, we enjoyed every place we visited, the roads we travelled, the towns, the pubs, the country side, the incredible desert, the culture, but moreover the very nice and friendly Australian people, always willing to help or simply have a chat.

12 September 2010

Finally we left Alice Springs and continued our trip, we stopped at the Rainbow Valley and The Meteorite Crater for some photos, we arrived at Kings Creek Station, a unique 2,000 square-kilometre station overlooking the George Gill Ranges, our dream to see a station came through!!, but this was even better it was a camel station. We asked why the surrounding was so green, because we expected to see everything red, they told us they have had constant rain and that we were very lucky because even the owner of the station, who has lived in the station for the last 30 years it is the first time he has seen everything green. The campground was enormous; you get a big camping spot for yourself, we set up and went to the Kings Canyon Resort, (which it is 40 km from the station) and had dinner, there was an outback show which was very entertaining.Next day ready to explore the Watarrka National Park and its surroundings; we commenced with a pleasant walk to Kathleen Springs home of Kathleen Gorge and a permanent waterhole.

We wanted to watch the sunset so we stayed around in the area to get some photos but the sky decided to become cloudy and spoiled the show, we rushed back to the Station for The Stock Camp Show, we enjoyed listening the history of this region through the eyes of locals, we caught the excitement of wild camel on video and watched a live demonstration of animal handling with camels and toped the night with a traditional supper of billy tea and damper.The next day Gabriel went on a self drive Quad Tour (4-wheel drive motorbike), he was so lucky to be the only person with two tour guides. Drove through desert groves; tackled sand dunes; spotted some wild camels (introduced to Australia in 1870), enjoyed some spectacular views. Learned a little bit on how the aborigines survived in the desert, what they ate and their shelters and where and how they used to find water; saw some of the flora and fauna of the place. When he came back to camp he was very happy because he had the opportunity to see a station.

Unfortunately Rosario could not go to this trip because of her broken arm. However she enjoyed staying back helping the ladies in the souvenir shop, walking around the station and looking at the camels.

After lunch we headed to Uluru. On our way we saw a big rock and thought it was it, we stopped at the lookout and realised it was Mount Conner, which is located at Curtin Springs Cattle Station, took photos from the distance and kept on going.

The next day off we went to see “Uluru”, no matter how many photos you have seen, nothing will quite prepare you for the first view of the magical rock, even from the distance it has something special (very hard to describe), when we reached its base it started to rain we were so lucky to have rain because it was an amazing spectacle; we saw waterfalls running from the rock.Uluru rises 348 metres from the base of the rock, has a gird of 9.4 km, it makes it the words most famous monolith and it is estimated that at least two thirds of the rock lies beneath the surface. We drove around the circumference of the rock, did the walks, and enjoy every aspect of the rock that is different. We visited the cultural centre, which displays art work and videos that helped us to understand the importance to the traditional owners “The Anangu People”. Went to the guided walks, we could not climb the rock because it was closed due to the weather conditions.

The last day we got up early and went to watch the sunrise. It was amazing how the colours of rock changed during the sunrise.

We travelled approximately 50 km and found “Katatjuta”, the name is an aboriginal name meaning "many heads", there are 36 separate domes (rock formed) and the tallest is in fact 200 metres higher than Uluru. There is a place called “Valley of the Winds” with different walking trials. Is was fascinating to see the different colours on the rocks.

29 August 2010

The air conditioning in the caravan was not working, we called the manufacturer and they sent the wrong part to Darwin, the manufacturer they said it could not be fixed it in Katherine, therefore we were told they were going to send the parts to Alice Springs, we said good bye to Katherine and headed to Daly Waters.We stopped at Mataranka and went to the hot springs, it was a beautiful place and the water temperature was fantastic, we also went to see Elsey’s Homestead and the Historical Characters of her book and her movie “We of the Never Never”We also noticed the fridge was making funny noises, we could not find anyone to give it a look so we head back to Katherine, we tried to contact the agent from Dometic without any luck, Gabriel was very upset and decided to keep on travelling, he was not happy at all.

On the road again to Daly Waters, the temperature was 32 degrees at night and no air conditioning; we arrived to the roadhouse just in time to order dinner. We set up camp and went to have a drink and eat the famous Barra'n'Beef; it was delicious, we had few drinks. One of the waitresses was from Argentina on a working visa, we had a chat with her and we meet some travellers at the pub.The pub section was fantastic, we found a big collection of everything that you cannot imagine including used bra’s, G-strings, a tree made out of very old thongs, driver’s licenses, money bills from all over the world. We had to contribute with something to the collection, Rosario found a box with Mexican tortillas, that she brought from Mexico the last time she was there, she found a good place to put the box with our names and leave it at the pub.

The next day we left Daly Waters and headed to Three Ways Road House, arriving at around 1:30 pm, there was nothing to do or see (except the pub), so we had lunch at the pub and kept on going, we decided to go non- stop all the way to Alice Springs, stopped at Tennant Creek to re-fuel and kept on going.

We noticed the outside temperature was dropping very fast it was getting cold; we stopped and changed from shorts and t-shirt to trousers and jumpers, unbelievable we went from hot summer (36 degrees) to cold winter (7 degrees) in less than 12 hours; arrived to Alice Springs around 8:30 pm and Gabriel said “I think I prefer the Northern Territory rather than the Southern Territory, why don’t we go back, it’s too cold”The next day we went to the information centre and visited the Flying Doctor Service offices, it was just amazing hearing how they work and help lots of people that live in very remote areas.

We also went to the Alice Springs Telegraph Station a gentleman (half aborigine and about 75 years old) introduced himself and pointed out some small kids on a photo and told us he was one of them; and that he was part of the stolen generation. He gave us a very good understanding explanation what happened with those children because he grew up in this place. He became our private guide and told us a lot of anecdotes and explained us a lot of things about the history of this place and Alice Springs, we even bought his book and he signed it for us.Alice Springs Telegraph Station is the era’s most intact. It is midway along the Overland Telegraph Line from Darwin to Adelaide, in January 1872; the Station’s first telegraph message was transmitted to Adelaide from here.By 1900, this very isolated Station was home to a cook, a blacksmith-stockman, four linesmen-telegraph operators plus the Station Master and his family.

The following day we went to get the fridge and the air conditioning fixed, there was a complete electricity blackout in all of Alice Springs, the fridge could not get fixed because of problems with the manufacturer. We decided to forget about the fridge and solve the problem when we get back to Sydney. Then after we went to get the air conditioning fixed, we had to leave the caravan with them because the lack of electricity, meanwhile we went shopping, later in the afternoon we went to pick up the caravan, and back home. Our plans were to leave Alice Springs on Saturday early morning, therefore on Friday (27 September) we went to re-stock and later went to visit the Desert Park, in this place we were able to see how much life can be found in the Australian deserts, including fauna and flora.We were walking towards the coffee shop to have some lunch at the Desert Park when suddenly Rosario tripped over and fell down, her right arm was hurting a lot, and we went straight away to the park’s office asked for help, the first aid officer splinted her arm, but Rosario still was in a lot of pain.It was decided to take her to the hospital in Alice Springs, the first aid officer offered to take her to the hospital in her car because she knew the way and also her car was going to be more comfortable for Rosario (Gabriel was going to follow them in the four wheel drive). The pain was so intense and before leaving the carpark they stopped and called an ambulance, which arrived 15 minutes later and took Rosario to the hospital.At the hospital they did some x-rays and found she had a broken bone between the thumb and the index finger and another broken bone at the end of the elbow, they put a cast on her arm and told her to come back to the hospital by Friday (3 September) to have the cast removed some x-rays and if the bone located at the elbow was ok then they were going to put a cast from the mid-arm towards the hand, which has to stay there for 6-8 weeks.We left the hospital at around 8 pm and due that we did not have lunch we went and had some take away food and back to the caravan park.

At the end we thought it was better to stay in Alice Springs and not taking the risk of been caught without medical services out in a remote area. We preferred to wait for the doctor's approval to travel and if approved we will continue our trip to Kings Canyon on Saturday 4 September.On Saturday we had to stay at the caravan park because Rosario was in a lot of pain, taking pain killers and in bed.On Sunday we had pancake breakfast provided by the caravan park and went to watch the trucks parade organised by the National Road Hall of Fame Reunion 2010, which by the way it supposed to be the biggest ever gathering of road transport identities ever held in Australia, we heard that during the parade there were more than 600 vehicles.

22 August 2010

After Darwin we headed to Litchfield National Park, we stopped at Batchelor to have a coffee and continued our trip to this beautiful National Park, stopping at the Magnetic Termite Mounds, we found them after entering the park, they are gigantic, standing more than 2 metres in height, they are in a north-south orientation. This configuration acts as a built-in temperature control mechanism, allowing only the least possible surface area to be exposed to the heat of the sun.After set up camp we went to check the place we didn’t know where to start, too many options we decided to go and see Florence Falls, after taking some photos and swam in the plunge pool of this spectacular double waterfalls set amid monsoon rainforest, then after we went to Buley Rockhole; these are a series of small waterfalls and rockholes that provided the perfect site to cool off and relax, we loved it because the temperature was 36 degrees and the water was perfect.Next day we explored some 4WD tracks and found Surprise Creek Falls, we walked through the forest and found a large tranquil pool and pleasant waterfalls which once again provided a great cooling off spot after the walk. Continued and found Tjaynera Falls/Sandy Creek it was a long walk at the end you are rewarded with a beautiful pool. In our way back we pay a visit to Blyth Homestead which are the ruins of an old homestead built in 1929 as an outstation of the main Stapleton Homestead for the boys to search for tin, it was amazing what people did to get rich the place is full of nasty insects and very hot.Later on we visited Tolmer Falls, these falls cascade over two high escarpments into a distant, deep plunge pool. There was no public access to the bottom of the fall because it is home to several colonies of rare and protected bat species, Ghost Bats and Orange Horseshoe Bats.We went to the park’s most popular visitor attraction the Wangi Falls with its two falls cascading into a cool, fresh water massive pool; this visit was worth it because apart of being so beautiful we had 36 degrees again.We found for those enthusiastic hikers and campers, Walker Creek, with individual camping spots and a private rockpool, the problem is that you have to carry all your gear with you from the car park up to 1.8 km.The visit to this park was worth it.

In the afternoon we did something very different, went to the Darwin Championship Rodeo, it is the first time we have attended to a rodeo in Australia, we found it is very similar to the Mexican “charreada”. There were rides, food stalls and music but something that caught our eyes and curiosity was a tent where street fighters were displayed and the announcer looked for spectators to fight them, it is amazing what a combination of alcohol and testosterone make men do. We couldn’t resist getting in and watching them boxing (fighting), and the winner... was the announcer, he made a fortune!!

On Sunday we could not resist to go back to Mindil Beach, to watch the sunset, eat something and walk around the markets. Once again we enjoyed the music from these two guys playing the didgeridoo and the drums we also watched a guy cracking two whips at the same time.

There is a place in Darwin where you can go and feed the fish, it can be done everyday at high tide, there were hundreds of fish waiting to be fed, it was a nice experience. We walked around town and went to the Museum of Indigenous Art, it was a fantastic display of Aboriginal Art, in addition the work done after the cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin and the strategies the government took and how the population helped to re-build the affected areas. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos. Furthermore we visited the Territory Wild Life Park and Berry Springs Nature Park.

14 August 2010

On our way to Kakadu National Park we stopped at Pine Creek, this is an old mining town, we saw the railway museum and the Miner’s Park, and there are lots of mining machinery and artefacts used during the gold rush, definitely worth the stop.

We made our way to Cooinda, which is located in the Yellow Water Region of Kakadu National Park where we camped and booked an afternoon tour to the Yellow Water River. During the tour of this ancient wetland we enjoyed watching the birdlife, flora and the famous salt water crocodiles. It was just something we have never seen before. After the tour we returned to the campground and after dinner we went to spot some crocodiles with our torches, we spotted only one right on the edge of the river and felt thousands of mosquitoes.Next day we went on another cruise to the wetland to see the sunrise, the views were just fantastic, lots of birds, big salt water crocodiles and the flora was amazing came back to camp had a shower and after breakfast we headed to Gunlom Falls; a 2 km steep climb took us to the top of the waterfalls and a lookout with great views over southern Kakadu.The next day we visited Jim Jim and Twin Falls, it was just spectacular, they did not have too much water due to the dry season however the natural setting with massive escarpment cliffs, gorges plunge pool and the beautiful walking tracks were overwhelming.By night we went to an Aboriginal Culture and Night wildlife boat cruise. The cruise was on the “Djarradjin Billabong” where we spotted some of the Kakadu wildlife that comes alive after dark. Obviously found lots of crocs, birds and the night sky were just awesome. Our guides were aboriginal people; they provided demonstrations on bush tucker (food from the bush), traditional medicine and plant use. We also had the opportunity to learn how to throw the spear (used by the aborigines for hunting) and tried to play the didgeridoo. The following day we headed North of Cooinda, we stopped at Nourlangie Region where we had a nice walk and sighted some Aboriginal rock art, continued and stopped at the township of Jabiru, this place is the service hub of Kakadu with a Holiday Inn Hotel, (the building is shaped as a crocodile) there are two caravan parks, a petrol station, bakery, swimming pool, banks, golf club and a social club and to finish our day we went on another cruise tour, this time on the East Alligator River, which forms the boundary between Kakadu and Arnhem Land , our tour guide was Aborigine; he explained aspects of local Aboriginal culture; showed us some medicinal plants, bush tucker plants and went across to Arnhem Land (note to visit this land you need a special permit, which can take from 6 weeks to 12 months to be processed and cost some $$$), during the quick visit to this land we saw a billabong where no men were allowed, it is a sacred place for women. The tour guide demonstrated how is a fishing spear thrown; he threw them more than 100 metres away without any effort, at the end of the tour we have had counted 28 big salt water crocodiles.

The following day we went back North of Cooinda, we visited Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre, the display provides detailed information about local Aboriginal culture and traditions, which helps to understand the connection that they have with the land, this place was very interesting to see, the we headed to Cahills crossing because we were told that at high tide the fish came upstream on the river and the crocs patiently wait for the take away food delivery, it is amazing to observe how the crocodiles have their own hierarchy where the biggest Ginga (crocodile in Aboriginal language) is like “the boss” then the others behind him according to their size and they are not allowed to interfere in the big bosses domain, beside the warning signs found everywhere; we could not believe the amount of people with small children taking the risk and standing very close to the water’s edge, where a crocodiles can just come out of the water a have a human feast. After this experience we headed to it was Ubirr, and saw lots of fascinating Aboriginal rock art sites and some rock shelters used by the Aborigines; also we enjoyed the rocky lookout that offers nice views of the Nadab floodplain and had the opportunity to watch the sunset on top of this rock which has 360 degree views. Kakadu is a very special place that offers the opportunity to experience the influence of remote and very old culture and feel nature as its best, this place is worth to visit as many times as possible. Boh Boh (good bye in Aboriginal language).

We stopped at The Lost City, with spectacular rock columns forming a look like city, spent a little bit of time in the area and started a very loooong driving day, we don’t know how many millions of corrugations we passed but definitely we were shacked, the fuel started to get lower and lower and the nearest fuel station was Roper Bar, suddenly the light on the dashboard came on, we were running out of diesel, the jerry can with fuel finally came handy, stopped on the road and poured the 20 litres of diesel into the vehicle and continued until we got to Roper Bar and decided to keep on going all the way to Katherine.

We finally reached bitumen in Mataranka; we couldn’t believe the speed limit signs 130 Km/Hr!!!!!! Gabriel just loved it, as soon as we arrived to Katherine we washed the off road granny flat because it was just filthy, covered in red dust and lots of mud, it was so dirty we were afraid they didn’t want to let us in the caravan park.The next day after getting all the information about the place and surroundings we went to Edith Falls (sorry please don’t try to look at the photos because we don’t know what happened but we lost them), what a beautiful place, we walked through steep and very rocky terrain but it was worth it.

The next day up to Katherine Gorge, we went on the three gorge tour, it was very different because you had to walk from one gorge to the other, this place was amazing and worth the visit. During the tour we saw a crocodile trap......the ranger said "well just in case".

We also visited the School of Air, back in the days when we use to watch the Skippy show on TV, we were amazed how Sunny had to do his schooling by radio. The school of the air broadcast to an area of 800,000 square kilometres, which takes half of the Northern Territory, also they have students travelling around Australia and or living overseas such as Bali, Papua New Guinea, Africa and the Philippines, in addition they cater for children living in cattle stations. Whilst in this place suddenly we were in the middle of a lesson, all runs on the broadband system via satellite with one way visual (teacher to student) and a two way audio system (no more radio communications). It was a great experience.

We also went to Katherine Museum; we really liked it because it had very good information from World War II, Katherine first migrants and the floods which affected the area.

At Katherine we also went to have a nice swim at the hot springs, the temperature of the water was just superb, which it was very pleasant.

11 August 2010

Lorella SpringsAfter a very dusty road with a lot of corrugations and holes we arrived at Lorella Springs “a unique place”, it is in a 1,000,000 acres cattle station, we checked in, got all the information about the place and proceeded to set up camp. This place is a large and rustic bush camping area with a beautiful shady hot springs, we thoroughly enjoyed them after all the dust from the road. Happy hour was announced and a large number of people gathered together for a chit chat and some cold beers. We had communal dinner where Rosario impressed the locals with her camp oven skills. Next day we went to explore the property, found some billabongs and had a swim. This unique place had a very good atmosphere and everybody was very friendly, which makes you feel welcomed.

05 August 2010

We moved from Lawn Hill Station to its next door neighbour Bowthorn Station (we were told this property has ½ a million acres with 25,000 heads of cattle) where Kingfisher camp is located, we were excited because it did not sound that far, however we travelled 140 kilometres inside Lawn Hill property until we drove into Bowthorn Cattle Station and then kept on going another 95 kilometres until we found Kingfisher Camp, the dirt roads were very rough, with a lot of corrugations and several bulldust holes and sandy patches, the outside temperature reached 38 degrees; it took us around 5 and a half hours of driving. After our arrival we set up and were invited to sit down around the campfire with our neighbours, next morning what a surprise, we found a beautiful camping grassed campground situated next to the Nicholson River.We did a self-drive trip to Hedley’s Gorge where they told us we could swim, when we finally reached the Gorge and almost ready to get into the water we spotted a fresh water crocodile and very quickly changed our minds about swimming, we were told these little friends do not attack people, but we have a lot of respect for them.In the afternoon we hired an aluminium boat and toured through the Nicholson River, we spotted a few fresh water crocodiles one was about 3 metres long, when we approached him to take a photo he did not even look at us; he just kept on sleeping. We also saw some bird nests stuck on under the face of the rocks it was amazing to see them coming out of their little houses.We headed back to camp and prepared everything for the next day journey; to finish the night we were invited have some drinks at another campfire. These people were from Sydney and we took the opportunity to talk about the Subaru Club, we think they are future members.

After a long a dusty road; finally we arrived to Adels Grove located in one of the largest cattle stations (known in Mexico as cattle ranch) in Queensland and it is called Lawn Hill. The gulf of Carpentaria region was opened up to grazing in the mid 1800s. Pastoral pioneers brought the first cattle to the Lawn Hill Creek area in the 1860s, after the gulf fever that caused many graziers to leave the area. In the mid 1870s Frank Hann purchased numerous leases, launching the beginning of “The Lawn Hill Pastoral Holding Company”, Hann accumulated 9000square kilometres. Over the next century several graziers leased the land, until the famous “cattle king” Sebatiao Maia arrived from Brazil.Maia arrived in Sydney in March 1975. He was unable to speak English and employed a taxi driver to be his interpreter and chauffeur as he travelled the country in search of potential cattle stations in Queensland. In 1976 Maia took over the lease of Lawn Hill Station and became the largest fauna sanctuary on leasehold in Queensland. In 1984 Maia surrendered 12,200 Ha of Lawn Hill Station to the State Government for a National Park. Today Lawn Hill has around one million acres, with approximately 40,000 heads of cattle, (the above information was taken from the visitors guide).Now back to our disaster, when we opened the door of the off road granny flat we found everything covered in red dust, it was shocking, we had to empty and clean everything and searched where the dust came from. We found two big gaps at the back of the van, these gaps were at the bottom of the fibre glass panels because the manufacturer of the van just overlapped them and did not seal these gaps, we sealed the gaps as much as we could, it was not a pleasant task.The campground is very spacious with a lovely waterhole and a river suitable for swimming and canoeing. Next morning we did a tour to visit Riversleigh D Site, which is one of the first major fossil deposits found (apparently in the world) and the only publicly accessible. It is a World Heritage area and its fossils are dating back 25 million years. They have found turtles, fish, snails, crocodiles, lizards, and several generations of wombats. Gabriel held a stone 15 million years old, we had morning tea with the group beside the beautiful Gregory River and returned to the pick up the caravan and headed to Boodjamulla National Park (Lawn Hill) for a long scenery walk to visit the Indarri Falls and the Gorge, the views were spectacular, the gorge has a diverse wildlife, lots of different birds and a funny little fish “Archerfish”, this fish spits a jet of water to knock insects down.

25 July 2010

Early in the morning packed up and headed towards the Carpentaria Shire, we had our first close encounter with a road train with three carriages, carrying fuel and it was going like a snake, we made contact with the driver through the UHF radio and asked him if we could overtake him, we waited for his go ahead and up we went, we passed the road train at 140 kilometres per hour and it was scary, but we made it. We stopped at Croydon to visit the old mining museum which was very interesting to see how big the gold rush was during the late 1800’s and how rapidly the town grew. There were more than 122 liquor licenses issued on the field with up to 36 hotels (pubs) within Croydon itself and this is not counting the sly grog (liquor) shop come shanties. Today there is only 1 pub and not many people within the town.

We continued to Normanton to take some photos of a replica of Krys, the largest salt water crocodile shot in Australia, it was 8 metres long and a massive two tonne in weight, we also went to the distinctive Purple Pub to have a beer just before continuing our journey to Karumba which is located northwest of Normanton and on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Whilst re-fuelling we spotted another road train, this one was also with 3 carriages but loaded with cattle, each carriage had two levels, and had the opportunity to take a video.

Early in the morning we went to Normanton to enjoy a ride on the famous Gulflander, an old train which connected Normanton to Croydon during the gold rush. In the afternoon we went on a Boat tour around Karumba and watched the beautiful sunset and enjoying some local prawns with a couple of beers.

We left Undara and headed to Cobbold Gorge, we stopped at Georgetown to update the blog a bit more, re-fuelled and had a quick bite. The Off Road Granny Flat was exposed to its first dust test, we didn’t have many problems thanks to all the dust filters Gabriel installed on all the air vents, so far so good.

We arrived late afternoon to this awesome place called Cobbold Gorge it is a located in Robin Hood Cattle Station. This cattle station has 14,000 head of Brahman cattle, 1284 square kilometres and up to date they have erected 300 kilometres of fence. When we expressed our surprise of how big is the property, they told us the station is just a small property, there are bigger in the Northern Territory!!!!Our tour was very unique we had the opportunity to have an overall view of the flora and fauna in the Gorge by foot, then after we went on a boat cruise through the Gorge which is fed by several springs keeping the water level constant, allowing boat access all year round, we saw native fish abound in these waters and many fresh water crocodiles, it was just unforgettable experience. After the tour we returned to the camp site for a relaxing afternoon, it was so hot that we decided to enjoy the pool with some coldies.

We spent few days in Cairns servicing the vehicle, reorganising and restocking for our next journey, to our disappointment we had some problems with Toyota Cairns and it took much longer for the vehicle to be ready than we had expected, also we had to take the four wheel drive to ARB because of noises coming from the snorkel, but we still managed to have a relaxing afternoon at Ellis beach as per Julie’s prescription and had dinner down town Cairns, which was very nice.

THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK ADVENTURE (SAVANNAH WAY)Early in the morning we left Cairns and started our Australian Outback Experience, we stopped at Mareeba, the Australian's coffee capital and had a beautiful coffee, our destination for the night was Undara. We stopped at Little Millstream Falls for a walk; we continued to Atherton and quickly visited the Crystal Museum (gems exhibition).

After all the driving we could not resist to have a revitalizing dip in the thermal pools located at Innot Hot Spring, then after we headed to a beautiful place called Undara. After our setting up we booked ourselves for the Lava Tubes Tour for the next morning. After dinner we went to the communal bush fire where every night there are different activities, tonight we had sing-along and it was good fun.Very early in the morning went to the Lava tubes tour which was very interesting and informative; we learnt that Undara means a long way in Aboriginal language. One of the lava flows from Undara extends more than 160 kilometres making it the longest lava flow on the planet. The Undara eruption was around 190,000 years ago, it was amazing to see how well kept they are, we really recommend to visit this place.We left Undara and headed to Cobbold Gorge, we stopped at Georgetown to update the blog a bit more, re-fuelled and had a quick bite. The Off Road Granny Flat was exposed to its first dust test, we didn’t have many problems thanks to all the dust filters Gabriel installed on all the air vents, so far so good.